Does anything...and I mean anything at all hurt more than child birth?

[Willow]

Haven't read all the responses but I can tell you a 9cm cyst on your ovary is right up there, 10 outta 10 kinda pain. And it went on for 6 months because I was prg and couldn't have it removed. Can't tell you how many times I went to A&E. The pain following that surgery was also baaaaad.

I'd have a baby over those two experiences in a heartbeat.

[Lolli]

I just wanted to throw in here- there is no shame in pain. Experiencing pain during birth is seen as the norm across many cultures, ages and demographics, and some see it as a rite of passage.

For Ali, and all the other girls who will soon give birth, even if you have done all the prep in the world, you may still feel pain and you may still need intervention. Doesn't mean you've failed, or you didn't try hard enough or breath deep enough.

For many many women, birth is just painful. That is a very common thing and not neccessarily something that will make you feel disappointed, incomplete, sad or traumitised. Pain- or lack of it- doesn't neccessarily mean your birth experience is any worse or better than anyone else's. Just different, in the same way all our birth experiences are different.

[Smoke Jaguar]

For many many women, birth is just painful. That is a very common thing and not neccessarily something that will make you feel disappointed, incomplete, sad or traumitised. Pain- or lack of it- doesn't neccessarily mean your birth experience is any worse or better than anyone else's.

Exactly, that's why I thought I'd mention that I wasn't going into birth thinking I'd insured against pain. It just happened that way. My GF's home waterbirth was painful, in her own words, and she loved it and still wants more women to have a wonderful experience like her own. That's how I feel about mine - empowered (pain or no pain, it was extremely empowering), not that it gets a better mark for pain free-ness. I want women to have empowered births, not a blueprint version of my own physical experience.
It's like vocalising during birth. I didn't really do any and some women do heaps - and it tends not to do with the pain, it's just a 'thing', another 'thing' that makes a birth individual and reflective of the woman doing it